By creating a work system in the general education classroom, students can have a systematic and organized presentation of their tasks and materials to provide opportunities to practice mastered skills, concepts, or activities.
THE WHY
- Work systems in the classroom will help students by:
- Focusing on the important details
- Maintaining attention to tasks
- Reduce their anxiety by providing predictability
- Generalizing skills to new settings
- Promote independence
CONSIDERATIONS FOR CREATING A WORK SYSTEM
When creating a work system, we want to consider the following:
- Create a clearly defined work area
- Explicitly teach your student how to use a work system
- Make sure the work system works left to right
- Removal of extra materials and other distractions
- Have the work system set up with the needed materials before the student arrives at that area
- Easily accessible for staff and students
- Finished box/area in place
- Cue to present the student with for the next activity
- Consider the following four questions:
- What work? (Identifies the form or the type of cue that labels each task, basket, or folder)
- How much work? (Identifies the organization and sequence of the tasks)
- When is the work finished? (Tracks progress and identifies when the work is finished)
- What’s next? (Identifies the transition to the next activity)
